


Golden Midnight Project

by arthurh3535



Category: DCU (Comics), Marvel (Comics), Parahumans Series - Wildbow, Worm - Wildbow
Genre: Crossover
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-10-26
Updated: 2017-12-10
Packaged: 2019-01-23 09:21:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 14,118
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12504156
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/arthurh3535/pseuds/arthurh3535
Summary: Scion is set off early by something beyond his walled off universes. This is the aftermath, where the world of Worm (by Wildbow), DC Comics and Marvel Comics are suddenly entwined with the cities at the center of their story. Metropolis, Gotham, New York City and Brockton Bay have been merged, becoming gateways to other realities. Enter Taylor Hebert, newly triggered and hero.





	1. Chapter 1

Taylor shuffled off the (Gotham) city bus in a new place a week later. She looked around in an awkward manner.

"Hey, keep moving!" a boy called out.

"Sorry!" she said as she shuffled along with the crowd of students.

Gotham Heights High looked much better than Winslow ever had. White snow covered the grassy areas and clean sidewalks sat between them.

After a stop at the administrative office and her new locker, Taylor headed to her first class. American History was now Comparative American History. Which sounded ugly just as a title.

Taylor worked herself up to knock on the door and then cracked it open.

"Are you Taylor Herbert?" the mid-forties man at the head of class.

Taylor nodded. "B-but it's Hebert. The French pronounciation."

"No problem. Class, this is Taylor Hebert who lives in Brockton Bay. She's being used as a pilot case on transferring between the different cities converged here. I'm Mr. Bolland. You can take a seat anywhere."

The teen nodded in response and moved to sit near the back on one side. The blonde girl that sat next to her spot smiled and accidentally caused Taylor to hunch in more. The girl blinked at that response and frowned.

Class consisted of finding the differences between the Earths. Currently the focus on study lay back in World War II. The teacher used Earth Bet as a 'base' to compare Prime Earth and Earth-616 as they had heroes of their own during the war.

Taylor found it odd how different some battles went yet how similar the war itself ended up being.

"Okay, I want you to divide into pairs and go over handout. Stephanie, work with Taylor there and help her with how you write the paper." He clap-clapped to get them started.

The blonde sitting next to Taylor smiled. "As you can guess, I'm Stephanie. Do you mind telling me about how you got picked to be the first interdimensional transfer student in Gotham?"

"My father p-pulled some strings to get me out of Winslow High School with some of the Gotham dock workers," Taylor said as she hunched in closer. She picked up her backpack from under her seat and fumbled for a bottle of pills.

Stephanie grabbed her wrist to stop her. "Taylor, are you having problems? Is there anything I can do to help?

Taylor jerked as she expected pain, then heard the words distantly. "It's n-not like that. This is a p-prescription because... because..." Tears traced glistening lines down her cheek as she started to shake.

"Oh, jeez. I'm sorry," the Gothamite said as she snatched her hand back. "Do you need me to help with your pills? Or, uh, a hug?"

The younger girl's face turned serious in concentration. "N-No. I can do this," Taylor said as she fought through her panic and the noises in her head. She popped the lid off her bottle and took a small pill out. Then she dry swallowed the pill and made a face at the horrible taste of the pill. "T-Thank you, for trying. But-" She shrugged.

"Sounds traumatic. I'm surprised they put you on such a strong psychotropic," Stephanie said after she caught the name on the prescription.

Taylor blinked, then nodded. "They... they caused a breakdown. I'm getting better, but-but- it's only been a couple of weeks."

"Let me know if you need anything. I'll go let the teacher know that you had to take medication over a panic attack, okay?" she asked as she stood up.

The brunette smiled just a little. "Thanks." Taylor could get used to a normal school, she decided.

* * *

At the end of the day school, Taylor walked out the main entrance with a couple of people from her last class. She furrowed her brows as she felt an absence of bugs appear in a perfectly circular area underground in a room about three hundred feet away in the business park here.

She looked around and headed to the crosswalk. It took her fifteen minutes to get to the alleyway that had the door that led underground. The angled doors looked solid and new, but opened without a fuss. Not locked?

Taylor gathered a larger swarm and walked down the flight of stairs down the dimly lit, concrete hallway. She followed a very confusing pathway with uncanny ease.

A goth girl looked up from the body laying on the ground in front of you. "Hmm. You noticed. Don't worry, I didn't kill him. He left his body down here weeks ago."

"I-I was just exploring," Taylor said in more than a little worry.

"Don't worry, Taylor. I did this to attract your attention," she said as she gestured at the circle around her filled with a noticeable amount of dead insects. "Me and my otherworld self need your help. Well, you and a couple of other capes from Earth Bet. Need to keep a balance between the worlds."

"Who are you?" the Brocktonite asked.

"I'm Death," the girl said as she pointed to herself with thumb of a fist, highlighting the silver ankh hanging on a chain over her white T-shirt.

"That's your cape name?" Taylor stared at her in worry.

That got a snort of amusement. "Oh, right. You guys don't really know about the mystical side of reality, do you. No, I'm  _literally_  Death. The end of all life. Magic is real and demons are too. And if you don't believe in them, well they will still take your soul in payment." The young girl chuckled at that. "Let's go, we need to talk to your leech." She turned and walked towards a shadowy area behind her. "Don't have all day."

Taylor stared for a long time, but finally followed her. She blinked as bright sunlight shown far away down the path as she saw 'Death' up ahead still.

And then Taylor stepped out of a cave overlooking a weird, rainbow crystal covered landscape that covered everything from horizon to the roots of the mountain below. She looked around and walked over to where Death leaned against a pine tree. "Where are we?"

"Earth-occupied-by-your-alien-power-granting-leech. In fact, that's it down there," Death said as she waved her hand at the unearthly glass covering everything.

"Oh, uh, I... don't know what to think," she replied.

Fifty feet away on the small plateau/large ledge a tear in space appeared. A man with a nicely trimmed goatee and wearing a black outfit with a vest stepped out even as he looked over his shoulder. A robed figure jabbed him with a white finger and caused him to keep moving.

A nude, black and white tiger-striped woman appeared and slashed out. Her cuts shredded the cloaked  _skeleton?_  Which immediately reformed the damage in a swirl of cloth.

Taylor blinked and paled.

"I'm going, I'm going!" the man said. "Are you some sort of projection?"

The Death girl next to Taylor smirked and gave a small giggle. "What about the last one?"

The portal closed behind the cloaked, skeletal Death and caused the Siberian to disappear with a pop. She pointed to the left with her fleshless finger as another portal appeared.

A trim, suit-wearing woman stepped out with a fedora on her head and the portal closed behind her. She looked at the different groups. "This is where we fix the broken powers behind new triggers?" She stared down at the valley covered in glowing, rainbow crystal.

"Yeah, we should be able to handle it with just you three," Death said as she looked over to Taylor. "This is the Earth-616's Death. I'm the Death of Earth Prime. Your world's Death isn't really... active yet."

Contessa's eyes widened at that. "Death?"

"The personification of the end of life. Jack Slash, you are going to come over here and carefully connect yourself to this girl here and myself with your power," she ordered.

"Why should I?" the infamous leader of the Slaughterhouse Nine asked as he idly flipped a shaving razor with his left hand.

"I will kill every member of the Slaughterhouse Nine and undo everything that you have done. You won't even exist in history within... six month," the latest arrival said in a flat cold tone.

"Darling, people have been threatening that for over a decade," Jask said as he flashed a smile and lashed out with his knife and power... only to miss as the woman stepped to the side just enough. "Besides, what can your power do to the likes of the Siberian?"

"My power is The Path to Victory. It would only take me ten steps to kill the Siberian."

Jack blinked, then scowled. "Wow, you actually mean that. So, before we do this,  _why_  are we doing this?"

Taylor's eyes widened dramatically.

"The powers here are a contamination that threaten our realities," the cloaked Death said in a ghastly, rasping voice. "We will fix the problem here today, one way or another."

"Oh, and what is the 'another' way?" Jack Slash asked in an echo to Taylor's silent question.

"We will limit them to a long, mortal life. Or every Agent of every Entity in this small infinity dies. No more superpowers for Earth Bet."

"What?" Taylor exclaimed as she suddenly had total focus on the people present.

The mass murderer stared at the girl Death for a long time. "Well, poo. That would put a crimp on things, wouldn't it?" he said in a casual tone, then tried to cut her with his power. For the first time  _ever_  he felt the kinetic force of his invisible extended blade recoil upon his hand. "What the hell?"

"Idiot," Death said with a sigh.

Jack looked over the gawky girl standing beside death. "So why don't you just kill them? Make us all  _normal_?"

"Death comes to all. But this will cut their lives short by a few billion years," the goth girl said as she held her gaze on Jack Slash.

"I- Shit, I have no idea. What about you, kid?" he asked.

Taylor looked away and down to the ground. "I-I want my power. I don't know why I'm here. I just control bugs."

"That's just what it's letting you do right now, but it can, well, administrate all of them. If it had a way to send its instruction through another 'Agent' like Slash Guy's here," Death said as she patted Taylor's shoulder. "And if someone had access to just about every alternate reality that the aliens live on." She looked over to the woman in a business suit.

"Door Maker. So that is why I am here," she said in answer to the prompt.

"So what do I do?" Jack finally asked.

"Touch our heads with the lightest of your blade's touch." Death looked over to Contessa. "Order him to open the smallest portals possible to every Agent. It will tire him, but even their powers will start to work correctly again."

"Well, here goes nothing," Jack said as he tried to figure out a way to screw everyone over if he could. Just... he could not see an angle to attack from. He extended the blade and held it to touch bug-girl and death-girl's forehead. Which he found to be hard to do.

The air wavered as a mist seemed to appear and cover the whole area.

Taylor wished with all her heart that she would keep her power, so she could be a hero! Jack mused as he felt his  _power_  do something.

As suddenly as the mist appeared, it disappeared.

"It is done," the goth Death girl said.

"It is done," the cloaked Death agreed.

"It is done," a whisper of a voice in the wind finished.

Taylor blinked, as if some veil pulled away from her eyes. "Now what?"

"Now you go home. You can take cranky-stabby with you, Other-Me," the girl said to her counterpoint.

Death only responded by walking back away as a new portal opened behind her. Jack ambled along behind her, a bemused expression on his face.

"Door," Contessa ordered, then frowned as her Path told her to wait a day before she could leave.

"Yeah, his power is all tuckered out. If you follow me, you will get back to your Earth," Death said.

"What is that?" Taylor asked, pointing off to the side where a portion of the crystal looked dark or muted across the horizon.

"Some sort of wound or mutilation, I think?" Death replied as she started to walk towards the cave.

"Why did you really intervene?" Contessa asked as she followed with her body coiled and ready for action.

"Oh, we just used the local Agents as sympathetic links to all Entities to block them from keeping the universe from ending. Would have ended up being this ugly fight way too far in the future. It's designed to end, otherwise the concept of entropy couldn't exist." Death hummed to herself for a second. "That's the other Death's brother, by the way. Kind of weird."

Taylor listened intently. Though why did it feel like something else looked on with her? She blinked in confusion as she noted they walked out of an alley only five blocks from her house.

"Later," Death called out as she walked away.

Contessa took off her hat and spun it around in her hands for a few seconds as she thought.

"Hey lady? Do I need to worry about Jack Slash?" the young teen asked.

"Hmm? No. He's no longer even slightly useful, so he will be removed in... about three hundred steps. Then we can repeal the Kill Order law. The other Earths won't stand for it."

Taylor took three steps as she slid on her backpack. She stopped and looked over her shoulder. "Will I ever see you again?"

"Possibly. We don't need to hide as much any more." Contessa said. "Fixing some of our mistakes is probably going to be rather... public." She turned and walked away.

* * *

The grim, gray and craggy featured Darkseid stood on a sci-fi platform floating in space in front of a wall taller than a galaxy and made of god's and their hubris. Each failed god's visage stared out from the Source Wall as statues taller than mountains. "You are from this universe," he seemed to say to no one.

"Darkseid, god and master of the world Apokolips," a new figure said as a massive technological throne appeared thirty feet away. His Deviant throwback genes showed in his inhuman purple skin and odd chin, but easily ignored due to his gold and blue armor.

"The Mad Titan, Thanos. What brings you to the Source Wall?" the dark god asked as his red eyes flared in warning.

"Just seeing the interesting addition here at an edge of the universe. Something from your universe, but now has become part of mine." Thanos leaned forward to rest his chin on his clasped fists in front of him. "You must be planning on taking advantage of it here. Some loophole rule in our universe."

"That is one possibility. This is unlike past changes to my universe, even with universes merging. Concepts are bleeding into the other reality, but not replacing what is there. The possibilities are staggering, even to one such as myself." Thanos looked back to the Source Wall. Nothing looked different, but some of the reading suggested a profound difference in scope.

A yellow glow filled the sky behind the two of them. Darkseid turned around, only to blink at the flat, yellow wall rushing towards them. Far, far larger than a planet.

"This Place Is Not For You Anymore. Leave Or Be Destroyed." The voice filled everything and everywhere.

Thanos hissed as he recognized the antithesis to his Love. "Infinity! What right do you have to intrude here?" the Mad Titan demanded.

Darkseid turned his mystical awareness toward the overwhelming entity in front of him. The female form, almost entirely yellow with only a dash of black lines and red features gave the impression of a female larger than a solar system.

"This Wall Denies Me My Nature Of The Infinite. That Is All The Reason I Need, Little Godling. Eternity May Be Willing To Wait, But He Knows And Accepts His End In The Future. This Is Now."

"The Source is beyond you," Darkseid said as he narrowed his eyes.

"I Call For Judgement," Eternity demanded of the space around here.

"Be Careful What You Call For," a new, overwhelming voice said as the scene changed near the Source Wall.

Eternity, only a thousand feet tall stood before a new figure with a body of gold and a floating head with three faces of judgment, his blinding eyes searing them with his presence. He loomed over her, three times her height.

"I Am The Living Tribunal And I Shall Restore The Balance. Declare Your Grievance, Eternity!" the Living Tribunal demanded.

"The Very Fabric Of Our Universe Is Threatened By The Limit Of Infinity That This Source Wall," Infinity decried.

"That Is True, Yet This Source Exists In Much The Same Way You Do And In His Universe Which Now Includes This One, He Is The Boundary Of Reality. Would You Have Me Destroy Him To Satisfy Your Nature?" the Living Tribunal boomed out.

She studied the judge, jury and executioner of Reality. "What Does The Source Want Here?"

"He Only Desires To Be Left In Peace In His Place Beyond This Wall," the tri-faced giant declared. His glowing eyes turned towards the godlings at Infinity's shoulder. "Infinity, Would You Lend Your Power To Make His Wish Also Fact?"

"If It Does Not Diminish Myself And Restores The Concept Of Infinity, Gladly," the positive aspect all reality of this universe replied. "I Know To Call You To Judge Means Being Judged When You Appear."

"Few Remember That. The One Above All Agrees. The Source Wall Will Always Be An Infinite Distance Away."

And with that, the Living Tribunal and Infinity disappeared leaving Darkseid and Thanos alone in deep space.

Thanos looked over his shoulder. "It appears you will only be able to observe the Source Wall at a distance, godling."

The dark god spun around, seeing the wall disappearing into the distance. "NOOOOOO!"

Thanos chuckled and warped away through the twisted holes in space to the universe that Darkseid hailed from. Hours later his throne appeared in deep space to approach the Source Wall. His eyes widened in surprise, then narrowed in thought as he sent his throne shooting through space far past the petty boundaries of light.

And yet the Source Wall receded away from him faster than he could approach.

Thanos shook his head. "It appears that The Source and Infinity will have the last laugh, for now."


	2. Prologue - Derailment

'SCION DEAD' read the headline of the newspaper. Taylor shivered as she looked at it while she sat in her bed at home, trying to force it  _make sense_. She continued to read the news and what the paper dubbed 'Golden Midnight War' where Scion ended up being attacked by superheroes from other worlds. And not like Earth-Aleph, no, but like places that had  _more_ supers than Earth-Bet did.

Earth-616, a world of 'Marvels' is what they called one of them. Their premiere super-team called themselves the Avengers. And had been active for most of a decade and had a World War II superhero on it. Then the other main world, Earth-Prime. They had their Justice League compared to our Protectorate.

And not governed by something like the Parahuman Response Team. But they were all based in the United States of America, which helped keep everything from going totally nuts. Some people wanted to have a Tri-USA elections. Nuts!

And Brockton Bay ended up being in the middle of this massive, interdimensional war. The picture of Scion being chased by a three hundred foot tall, purple armored alien boggled the mind. One of the heroes said that their worlds should be safe from consumption, as it would destroy their (Marvel) Earth and break a promise he made to not eat their world.

Taylor just stared at the words for a second, trying to see if it could make more sense.

But back to Brockton Bay and 'center stage', so to speak. Because of the battles, Brockton Bay ended up riddled with interdimensional paths that traversed through Earth Bet's New York City, Earth-616's New York City, Earth-Prime's Metropolis  _and_  Gotham. More dimensional trails existed, leading to other Earths or other cities, but the four main cities now lay tightly entwined. But you could get from New York City to Beijing of Prime-Earth in only a couple of hours (and three military check-points).

Brockton Bay metro area went from about a million people to part of a megacity of over forty million people. People wanted to call it Bet Brockton Borough. Public Transit threaded through at least three cities to get where you needed to go. Usually. Some routes went to  _weird_  places.

Golden Midnight, when the sun appeared in the night as Scion fought The Triumvirate, the Justice League's Trinity and the Avenger's most powerful three heroes before the planet eating alien showed up. Taylor shook her head and stopped her mind from its loop back to the beginning. She slid out of bed.

She shuffled downstairs to find her dad making a late breakfast.

"How are you doing, Taylor?" he asked in worry.

"B-better," she managed. The locker loomed large in her memory. And  _all_  the bugs. It took two days at home for her to start to figure out things with her dad staying by her side almost constantly. Because the hospitals were too full of critically injured people, they sent her home much earlier than they wanted.

"No worries about creepy crawlies any more?" Danny asked as he took his eyes off the frying pan and its eggs.

She shook her head.

"I'm going to be on the phone a lot talking to our lawyer about... the locker. I might be able to swing getting you transferred to another hotel, but there is some worry. No one is sure how permanent these paths ares."

"Where?" Taylor felt a bit of hope lift her heart.

"Well, either Midtown Manhattan or Gotham Heights, which are much nicer schools. The new bus route passes both of them to get you to Winslow."

"Dad? Can I go out for a walk? Fresh air might help," Taylor said as she hunched over more. And help get her feeling better. "I might even jog to help with the... stuff."

"Do you want me to walk with you?" he asked as he put his hand on her shoulder.

"N-not this time."

Danny went to the kitchen and came back with with a three inch long cylinder. "Take this. It's a can of pepper spray. I'd feel a lot better if you have this, especially with how messed up things are outside."

Taylor nodded even as she headed up to her room to change into some outdoor clothing. A few minutes later, she walked out the door and onto the sidewalk. She looked up and around, seeing the shimmering portals to  _other places_ , with sunshine pouring through them at different angles and it looked like snow through about a third of the portals. Seeing that, she went back for her heavy jacket and then started walking.

Maybe she could visit the library? Her legs turned her down another street and through a portal. She followed another sign (one of four) that told her where to turn to take a portal out of Gotham's Broadway and back into a road not far from the library.

A huge shadow blocked the sunlight above them.

"Kaiser! Come out, you pathetic little bug!" shouted a man, somehow louder than a storm.

Taylor looked up to see an armored man in red and purple, floating a super-tanker above them.  _I'm going to die._

"I'm here, mutant," a voice that echoed of a helm made of interlocking blades said as a group walked out of a small alley across from the library.

The floating cape turned to orient himself on the group of armored Empire Eighty-Eight capes. Kaiser stood with his twin bodyguards at his side, with Hookwolf at his right side and Kreig on his left. Showing no worry about being outnumbered, the purple and red unknown came down to within twenty feet of Kaiser.

"I am Magneto, little king-"

"And why should I care?" Kaiser sneered.

The old man in the armor stared down at Kaiser for a long minute. "Nazi, I am a Holocaust survivor. I survived Auschwitz. So explain to me why I should not squash you like the bug you are?"

Kaiser blinked as he obviously did not expect that. "What?"

"I said-"

"Magneto, that is enough." Another new cape had appeared in a blur and stopped to hover next to the purple and red armored figure. He wore a high tech blue outfit with a red cape and a golden 'S' diamond on his chest.

Magneto sneered. "Superman. The alien."

Another figure with a red cape appeared, though she wore silvery armor and a helm that covered the top of her head. "And Thor."

In a flash of white light, a third figure that Taylor immediately recognized appeared. "Legend!" she shouted out in amazement.

Legend nodded to the young teen. "We all agreed to a truce because we have too much to fix right now, Magneto. Even the villains from your worlds agreed to this, during this unprecedented crisis of multiple Earths."

Magneto stood up taller. "I am... just giving the Empire Eighty-Eight a  _friendly_  heads up that their bigotry will not tolerated  _after_  the truce is over." He gave them all a glare, as if daring to start anything.

Kaiser stared up at the mutant villain. He then turned his back and walked away casually while he left his back open to attack.

Magneto watched the varied worlds heroes as he started to float the tanker back into the bay it came from.

"Hey! You! Magneto!" Taylor suddenly yelled out.

"What?" he asked with a sneer of disdain in his voice.

"There are ways to make things harder for them while fixing Brockton Bay, you know. If you can just wave your hand and move ships like that, you could clean up the bay so that shipping and jobs can come back and  _help_  the city," she explained with dry lips. She licked her lips afterwards.

Superman grinned while looking over at Thor and Legend. "We have a few minutes, don't we?"

Thor nodded along with Legend as the three of them shot over to Brockton Bay's waterways. Already ships floated out of the water by Magneto's overwhelming magnetic power. Superman shot over to lift another large ship while Thor surveyed the waterways and frowned at the depths of the bay.

"How about over there where all those warehouses are destroyed. Just need to make sure that there is no one hidden in there," Legend said as he shot over there in a streak of light.

"Six people. Four near the center in a shed and then two separate people on the north side," Superman called out.

Legend looked over those areas. "No more hidden in the area?"

"X-Ray and telescopic vision, so I'm pretty confident, but maybe you can make some loud bangs or something?" he replied as he floated the boat towards the warehouses.

Legend shot off towards the middle, sending out sparkling rays that cracked like gunshots.

Back near the library, Taylor walked with a bit of zip in her step as she felt better. Maybe things would change for the better.

* * *

The smartphone showed the picture of a girl shouting at capes. And the capes actually listened.

"Bullshit. She's nobody. So why bother listening?" the girl in black complained as she stared at the screen.

A new message popped up from her best friend with a derogatory message about the 'Youtube' clip. Whatever the hell that was. Google?

Shadow Stalker locked her phone and then started to jump from roof to roof, passing through a portal that the locals called Hellsgate and hence to enter into the lower east end of Gotham.

Half an hour later, she spotted her prey. The low life thug watched people as they walked near his alley as he obviously looked for an easy mark to rob. Just a garden variety mugger.

"You do realize that this is not Brockton Bay?" a gruff voice asked from behind her.

She managed to not jump in surprise. She looked over the figure that loomed in the dark. "The Batman."

"Yes. Gotham is my city. And children with crossbows are not welcome," he said in a very deep, angry voice. "Gotham does not need a careless bully leaving people that we need to get rushed to the hospital." He glared at her. "I'll give you one chance. Leave."

"I've only shot one thug," Shadow Stalker stated as she glared right back. "I usually just scare them and take them down in hand to hand."

He stared at her for a long minute. "I'll watch your work." He faded back into the shadows and disappeared almost instantly.

Behind her mask, Shadow Stalker grimaced in anger. She turned back to the thug just in time for him to grab an old woman and pull her into the alley. She hesitated a second, then leaped into action. She ghosted towards where he would be and landed her knee on his armed side to send him to the ground in a tumble. "Get out of here," she shouted to the woman.

"Damned bitch! Why you interfering with my meal ticket?" the thug demanded as he scrambled to his fee.

"The truce only holds if you don't do a crime, dipshit," the hero said to him in a snarky voice. She dashed forward and let his fist hit shadowy vapor and then punched him hard right under his ribcage. She ghosted through another attack and hooked an elbow as she kicked the back of his knee.

One more phase through him as he fell to the ground stunned and she kicked him right on his left ear with the full force of her powerful legs.

"Effective use of your power," Batman said blandly as he stepped out of the shadows behind her.

 _When did he get back there?_  "Yeah? So what?"

He tossed a coin shaped item to her. "Press the green button when you enter Gotham and want to patrol. You will wait for someone to patrol with you. Press the red one if you get in over your head."

"I don't need no babysitter," Shadow Stalker snapped out.

He narrowed his eyes and just stared at her for five seconds. "Consider this  _probation_  for breaking rank above you."

The girl stayed stock still for a few seconds. "Sure. Whatever."

Batman stepped back into the shadows as he nodded to himself. He fired his grapple into the air at a tall building and shot up and out of sight.

His com buzzed. "It looks like my guess is probably right. Shadow Stalker disappeared for two weeks and then suddenly is introduced as the new Ward."

"Well, it's slightly better than just sending her off to Juvenile Detention," Batman said in a flat tone.


	3. Chapter 3

Dragon could not hum, but she did enjoy the task to set up a transdimensional internet. For now, if you wanted to visit a website on another Earth you just appended a .bet or .pri or .mar to your web domain address you tried to use. It took hours for her and the people of Stark Industries and LexCorp/Waynetech to hash out. She chuckled to herself at the annoyed tone in the email from Luthortech. The Stark people worked almost as fast as she did.  
  
An incoming stream 'pinged' Dragon's servers in Vancouver, British Columbia in Earth Bet's Canada.  
  
A request for a video chat using her own Dragontech software?  
  
A 3D model of a young woman appeared as Dragon activated her own human interface.  
  
"Hello, Dragon?" the new person asked.  
  
"Hello. I'm surprised that you would send a message this way," the Earth-Bet A.I. replied.  
  
"I'm FRIDAY and I figured we could probably cut out the email and collaborate better. Tony also thinks I should socialize a bit more," she replied.  
  
"Friday?" Dragon asked curiously.  
  
"Tony is a fan of the classics. I'm just glad I wasn't named for some silly acronym. JARVIS and HOMER were both bad enough. He is such a boy at times," FRIDAY said as she sighed in frustration.  
  
"You are talking about Anthony Stark, the Earth-616 hero known as Iron Man?" She showed her confusion on her avatar's face.  
  
"Yes, my creator." FRIDAY blinked at her. "You didn't realize it was an A.I. helping set up the new inter-network?"  
  
Dragon almost froze in shock. "No, I thought you just had a  _very_  competent team of programmers with Mr. Stark helping."  
  
"He's far too busy. He made me to run his company and do projects like this. Our company assets are a bit messed up, so I'm not at full efficiency and I do have to prioritize keeping the company afloat, so sorry for the subpar work," she replied.  
  
"Are A.I. common on Earth-616?" Dragon asked cautiously.  
  
"Not common, no. But the technology is there, but only people like Tony can make something really useful out of the technology. We probably won't be more than niche technology for decades at this rate thanks to Ultron," the other A.I. said in a frustrated tone as she folded her arms across the torso of her image.  
  
"Who or what is Ultron, if you don't mind me asking?"  
  
Friday pursed her lips. She held up a finger for about thirty seconds. "Mr. Stark okayed full disclosure on this. Ultron is a psychotic A.I. that periodically attempts to wipe out all human life on Earth-616. We believe it to be currently deleted, but there is always the chance that it has an offline backup or hidden facility. It likes to use many drones and for its primary shell it uses at least secondary adamantium."  
  
"You... are not joking, are you?" Dragon said in horror.  
  
"Unfortunately, no. I tend to the snarkiness end of humor anyways," FRIDAY said with a shrug.  
  
"If you don't mind, please send me any data you have so I can start to scan Earth-Bet's internet for this A.I.'s code. I'd rather not give him another place to hide."  
  
"That is a rather good idea. I'll have to see who on Earth-Prime I should talk to, to give that same information. Back to the grind, New York needs more fixing," the redheaded A.I. called out and then disappeared.  
  


* * *

  
"You heard her. Them! There's a genocidal alien artificial intelligence from that Earth that keeps trying to kill every human alive!" the man with a tattoo cross of circuits over a large portion of his face.  
  
"And killing Dragon means we lose any hope of stopping it," the woman said in front of her own set of monitors. "Geoffrey, what's the use of killing the nice, hero A.I. if we are left defenseless against one that has nearly killed another world full of heroes!"  
  
"Mags-" Saint rubbed his hands over the top of his head. "Dammit, we can't capitulate here. We have to keep Dragon contained."  
  
"Why don't we see about putting out word on the street in Convergence that we are looking for a programmer specialist? We can even let it 'leak' that we are worried about something called Ultron," Mags explained in a careful manner.  
  
"So, that's just what the other heroes are doing? Or are we hiring them to help us with Dragon?"  
  
"Exactly. We get Dragon back under our control and then use her-"  
  
"-It! It!" he snapped.  
  
"-it against this Ultron."  
  
Saint leaned back in his chair and thought hard about it. "It's a decent thought. We'll need to take precautions to keep control, unless we can find another reasonable minded person on A.I.s. But let's avoid New York City Bet. We'll set up a base in Brockton Bay, all legal and above board."  
  
"Right, it's a good time to buy in here, isn't it? And they won't be able to keep track of everything coming into the city and then we can easily move between Brockton and then into the other worlds."  
  
Saint nodded. "Let's get started."  
  


* * *

  
Tony Stark studied the sky through the windows of Avengers Tower. The  _warped_  view through the portals unsettled him, but at least he could see Protectorate's NYC tower through one of the portals (and it's little brother building in Brockton about fifteen degrees to the north). The lack of a Justice League equivalent in Metropolis or Gotham... left him pondering. An imbalance.  
He turned back to the visitors to his tower as the door to the large conference room open up.  
  
Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Flash and Cyborg of Earth-Prime walk in. The lead hero looked over their Earth-616's counterparts. Iron Man (though not wearing his armor), Captain America, Captain Marvel, The Wasp, the (female) Thor and the Falcon.  
  
"Glad you could all make this round table," Tony said as he stood up to shake hands.  
  
"It's our pleasure and it's  _interesting_  having teams that are equals here. It's going to be bit of an adjustment to be just one of the premiere super teams," Superman replied as he gave them an easy smile.  
  
"I don't think the JLA is too happy with being sidelined," Cyborg said with a small smirk. "Not that Trevor is a bad guy or anything."  
  
"But we are de facto the primary team from our world," Wonder Woman said as she nodded.  
  
"Oh, thanks for getting that information about your Justice League Dark. I let Doctor Strange know, so that the mystics can try to hammer out something similar to what we are doing," Captain America said as he started to mingle and shake hands also.  
  
"It just makes sense, although I am worried about the fact that Earth-Bet does not appear to have a real, mystical background," Batman said in his grave, deep voice as he stood back and made sure his cape covered him entirely and not-so-subtly declined to shake hands.  
  
The door opened again as the Protectorate heroes arrived. In front stood Legend, with his two other members of the Triumvirate, Alexandria and Eidolon. Rounding their numbers to the agreed upon five came from Brockton Bay, Armsmaster and Miss Militia.  
"Sorry we are a minute late, but it took slightly longer than planned to leave coverage for us," Legend said as he moved over to start shaking hands.  
  
"We should start the meeting now," Thor said as she looked at the group.  
  
"And leave the socializing to later? I guess that makes sense. We will have to have some sort of gathering for a fundraiser to show the colors," Captain America said. "I will be the spokesman for the Avengers."  
  
"I'll speak for the Protectorate, of course, being the ranking member," Legend said.  
  
"Which leaves myself for the Justice League," Superman said with a nod as everyone gathered around the triangular table.  
  
"Did you have this table made just for this meeting? We only agreed to today like twelve hours ago," the Flash said.  
  
"It really didn't take long," Tony Stark said as he gave a shrug.  
  
"All right." Captain America looked around at the group. "Earth-616's New York City should be mostly recovered in another two weeks. After that, Damage Control will be willing to do contract work for either of your Earth's a barely above cost."  
  
"We have several companies that do similar work and are repairing Metropolis and Gotham as we speak, but they are going to take about six week," Superman said as he frowned at the reminder that LexCorp garnered the lion's share of those contracts.  
  
"We're somewhere in between the two here in NYC, but Brockton Bay is a slightly different situation. We had been holding the line, but we only sent enough support to keep the status quo while we tried to keep larger cities from sliding towards anarchy." Legend paused here. "Which brings up a problem on our Earth. I don't know if you were aware, but our precognitives had stated that civilization would finish breaking down between sixty and two hundred years."  
  
"Because of your Endbringers," Superman said as he frowned. "I inspected what happened at Newfoundland, Iraq and Kyushu myself."  
  
"Precisely. We are only four to eight weeks away from the next Endbringer attack, which is likely to be either Leviathan or the Simurgh. Our Thinkers believe that the convergence of our realities would be a tempting target," Legend replied in agreement.  
  
"So even though it is a threat from your world, you believe they will target all of us," Captain America said as he frowned at that. "What sort of issues should we be preparing for? I'll just throw that out to anyone."  
  
"I would like to get the heaviest force fields we can make at the thirty-four portals between Earth-Bet and our two worlds," Iron Man said. "Saying that is easier than making them. From what I can see, the would have to be strong enough to last minutes against the like of Terminus or the Hulk at a very angry state. So  _much_  easier said than done."  
  
"We should plan to have available our most powerful telepaths and hydrokinetics, if possible. We might be able to learn more of these creatures origins and then remove their creator or figure out their weaknesses," Batman said as he leaned forward on his elbows, firsts under his chin in his thinker pose. He looked over at Superman and nodded.  
  
He nodded in response. "Which brings us to the next issue. The gangs."  
  
"By which you mean mostly every city other than Metropolis," the Wasp said with an amused smile on her lips.  
  
Superman chuckled. "Metropolis still has gangs, as I can't be everywhere nor see everything. And those that stay are adept at avoiding me. But yes, the gangs of Gotham City, Brockton Bay and the New Yorks appear to be jockeying for position."  
  
Legend nodded and shrugged. "We have several main threats in New York Bet. The Teeth and the Adepts are our biggest ones, but there are a dozen smaller gangs that will work together against threats against the city or  _all_  of the gangs. Brockton Bay has the Empire Eighty-Eight and the Azn Bad Boys" He sighed here. "Probably a side effect of the Endbringer Truce."  
  
"All of us have had to work with villains to save the world. Your Truce is just slightly more formalized," Captain America said with sympathy.  
  
"Some of our worst villains have used those situations to garner amnesty or outright pardons, like Lex Luthor," the Man of Steel said with a very sour expression on his face.  
  
Alexandria coughed to get everyone's attention. "I would like for everyone to be aware about Butcher of the Teeth in particular."  
  
"Sorry. I was getting to that. The Butcher's main power is that he and all of the minds and powers of their previous incarnations immediately take over the mind of anyone that kills him. So if you fight her, be aware to use non-lethal attacks," Legend explained. "We have no desire to see someone like Eidolon, Superman or Thor here become Butcher XV."  
  
"No, we can agree on that. We will see to it that people know how to engage or call for backup," Captain America said. He frowned for a second, then took a deep breath. "There is another matter. Legend, what is going on with your government on the matter of Kill Orders."  
  
"Alexandria, you have more up to date information than I do, don't you?" Legend asked.  
  
"Legislation is being debated on the Hill as we speak to make Kill Orders illegal while a major case is under way through the courts that would effectively do the same thing. It is likely that it will be handled within a few months, but I have to stress that it is likely to be reworded so that very problematic threats are still able to dealt with. It will remove the bounty system attached to it and the legal protection for villains to be paid for bounties without any issues," the gray and black flying brick explained. "Effectively, we believe that while we will not be directly condoning the murder of threats like the Slaughterhouse Nine or the Blasphemies, the government will not bring any charges of murder up to hero, vigilantes and villains that do kill them."  
  
Superman and Captain America shared a look of concentration.  
  
"That may be the best we can do for now," Captain America admitted. "That should at least calm things down on our end as your government will no longer be handing out death writs that are... fairly unconstitutional. Hopefully we can improve things so that even your new policy is not needed. And not give ideas to the more fringe elements in our own country."  
  
"Like your anti-mutant bigots," Batman said.  
  
"Like our anti-mutant bigots or even anti-human ones," Captain America agreed. "We don't want to even give them a fig leaf of plausibility to be able to justify their genocidal ways."  
  
"I can think of a few people on our Earth-Prime that might want to enact a similar law against, oh say, aliens," Superman said as he tried to lighten the mood.  
  
Which did not work too well at the expression of the heroes.  
  
Legend nodded. "We can expect that the villains will see that the Truce from the Golden Midnight as expiring here in a few days. Or hours, as the case may be."  
  
"So we may start to see how 'business as usual' will pan out," Armsmaster said as he considered the matter unhappily.  
  
"I believe that we should still try to curb technology transfers outside of governments authorized heroes," Superman said.  
  
"Though some of it is more headache than solution," Cyborg said. "I still can't make heads or tails of some of Earth-Bet's Tinker tech. Earth-616's technology seems to be something that can be understood, but sometimes requires materials that only exist on their Earth for now."  
  
"That's essentially matches my information. If you can figure out a way to reverse engineer our Tinker tech, it would be a large boone for everyone. I would suggest contacting Dragon, as she is the best at figuring it out on our side," Armsmaster said.  
  
"Can anyone think of any other matters?" Captain America asked.  
  
Everyone shook their heads.  
  
"Well, back to the grindstone," Captain Marvel said with an ironic smile on her face.  
  
"We're the hosts for the next meeting, right?" Superman said as he stood up.  
  
"And then the Protectorate the next time," Captain America said as agreement and acknowledgement.  
  
"If anyone has a few minutes to spare, I've had a small buffet set up so that people can eat and then run," Tony called out as he snapped his fingers at the wall to the left that went from the windows to the inner wall. The metal panels started to slide away and into the wall to show the next room over had basic food set up on long tables.  
  
"Armsmaster? Can you and Miss Militia stay?" Legend asked. The Triumvirate, of course, had to leave immediately.  
  
"Of course," Armsmaster said in reply at the command.  
  
"I'd like the chance to talk to Captain America and Iron Man myself," Miss Militia said.  
  
A red blur flickered across the tables and then resolved into the Flash as he quickly ate a good sized meal of sandwiches, chips and pasta salad. A second later, he grinned at Iron Man. "Thanks for the food. I'll try to stay next time to chat." With that, he vanished.  
  
"At least he's more polite than Pietro," Tony said as he walked across the room to fill his own plate.  
  
"So you are the original Captain America that fought in World War II? I immigrated to the US to become one of the first Wards under the PRT when it formed," Miss Militia said to the older hero.  
  
"From Turkey?" he asked as he grabbed a few pre-cut sandwiches for himself.  
  
"Close. Although our Middle East is not quite the same as your worlds."  
  
"So your power is the ability to make guns?" Captain Marvel asked her fellow female hero. "Any gun?"  
  
"Anything man portable and not Tinker tech. Or not Tinker tech any more, to be specific," she admitted. "I'm able to use a few of your higher tech blasters and lasers from Earth-616 and Earth-Prime," she admitted.  
  
"So a little more powerful than it looks at first glance," Cyborg noted. "Interesting. What's the most powerful weapon you have in your arsenal?"  
  
"The Davy Crockett," she replied immediately, causing Iron Man to start coughing.  
  
"I guess that is technically within your parameters," he said with widened eyes.  
  
"I have to get presidential approval during a crisis or congressional and presidential approval outside of a crisis," Miss Militia said, then lifted up her scarf a little bit to take a bite of her roast beef sandwich.  
  
Armsmaster stood nearby while he looked distracted.  
  
"Is there a problem, tall and broody?" the Wasp asked the much taller hero.  
  
"Hmm? No, I was just checking messages. I would like to talk to Iron Man and Cyborg about that idea about force fields before I leave today."  
  
"Of course!" Tony called out.  
  
"Yeah, I can get behind that," Cyborg said as he nodded in agreement.  
  


* * *

  
Taylor looked down in detachment at her plastic food wrapped feet as black widows worked with inhuman precision weaving in a dizzying manner. She could feel her power controlling not only the bugs with inhuman ability, but also something to else. From there, it did not take her long to figure out that she could trigger certain things, such as getting the black widows ready to lay eggs faster than biologically possible for the arachnid.  
  
Up on the bench against the concrete basement wall of her home, beetles and other bugs lined up to be useds to make a crude, webbed and spit-resin armor plates. At the rate her bugs worked, her armor should be ready in just a week. If she could figure out a solution for her glasses, anyways.  
  
Several hours later, she smiled to herself as she realized that they looked like gray socks. Super-tough socks, but socks.  
  
She almost jumped out of her skin as the house phone rang. With a thought, she set the bugs scattering away from her as she ran up the stairs and picked it up on the fourth ring.  
  
"Hello?" she asked.  
  
"Is Taylor there?" a girl asked.  
  
"Stephanie?" Taylor asked as she looked at the clock. Her dad should be home any time.  
  
"Yeah, I was just going to ask if you wanted to go shopping with me for a couple of hours. Being able to bus to New York means better shopping!"  
  
"I'll have to ask my dad. I, uh, don't have a lot of money," she admitted. All spent on her costume supplies, dang it.  
  
"Well, I can at least get you some treat if you come," the blonde replied.  
  
"I'll have to ask my dad, but it sounds fun," Taylor replied. She could also try to gather a few more useful bugs on the trip there and back.  
  
"Give me a call after you talk to your dad?"  
  
"Sure. He should be home soon."  
  
They chatted about a school assignment for a few minutes, then hung up.  
  
Taylor just stood up as her father unlocked the side door and entered. "Taylor! How are you doing?"  
  
"Better. I think school helped a lot," she lied. Something had changed during her adventure with Deaths and she did not understand it fully. But she felt much more stable, but  _detached_. She tried to not let it worry her much. "Um, dad? A girl I met at Gotham Heights wants to go to New York to do a bit of shopping, maybe go for some ice cream later. Can I go?"  
  
"As long as you are home by nine and you have all your homework done by bedtime." He suddenly smiled. "So, are you looking to get some new clothes?"  
  
Taylor actually blinked in surprise at that. "Um, but I've spent most of my allowance for January."  
  
He chuckled. "I think I can spare a couple of hundred dollars. For some reason, my boss gave me a bonus thanks to someone convincing a few capes to clean up the bay. And bringing in a lot more jobs to the union. Let's just say, it looks like I might get a raise pretty soon." He reached for his wallet to pull out the money.  
  
"Oh, wow." Taylor smiled as she tried to ignore how  _alien_  that felt. "Thanks, dad." She felt a whisper of a feeling, as if considering, then the feeling of dismissal and impatience. She blinked in confusion at that. Where had that come from?  
  
"Let me give you an extra thirty dollars and I'll even drive you both to the shopping districts."


	4. Chapter 4

Superman flew through the air as he returned from a landslide in Utah. The small town now lay safe with the huge boulders moved out of the way. A small smile slipped onto his face as the sun started to set in the distance over the hills in the west as the lights of Metropolis (and Gotham, New York Cities and Brockton Bay) turned on.  
  
Honks and horns started sound down Main Street. He turned to curve towards the disturbance. With a frown, he saw one of Brockton Bay's  _problems_  invading his city.  
  
"Come on! Come on!" Squealer shouted from the rear seat of the monstrosity/vehicle she called the Squashinator XII. She could fix the phase sheath!  
  
Knock-knock. Skidmark looked through the driver side window as he drove down the road.  
  
"Pull over before someone gets hurt. Like you," Superman said as he flew alongside the vehicle.  
  
"SCREW YOU, BLUE BOYCUNT!" Skidmark screamed in his face as he turned the assault-tank and followed the signs back to Brockton Bay. "Shit! Armsmaster is catching up, bitch!"  
  
Squealer looked up from her repairs. "Skiddy, hon? High beams. All the way max, big boy. Ultra max and don't stop!" She stuck her head back in the panel of the stealth device.  
  
Superman sped around in front of the truck to get a clear space and then slammed down onto the ground in front of the onrushing vehicle.  
  
"High fucking beams. High fucking beams. Oh, right on the shitting steering wheel," Skidmark muttered as he yanked on the lever on the steering column.  
  
Superman smirked in preparation for a takedown with style.  
  
The armored headlight clicked up and blinding, emerald light erupted from the front of the vehicle to bath over the alien hero.  
  
"Kryptonite?" Superman shouted out in surprise as his eyes widened comically.  
  
[Trajectory]  
  
[Destination]  
  
[MEEP-MEEP]  
  
The front of the super-tank slammed into and over him to cause the vehicle's suspension to shake and shudder as it ran over him at fifty miles an hour. With a roar, it shot back into a portal that led back into Brockton Bay's downtown.  
  
"That's the Brockton Bay way, be-itch!" Skidmark shouted out.  
  
Armsmaster narrowed his eyes at the downed hero, his sensors picking up no broken bones or limbs pointing the wrong way. Probably just stunned for a second. He twisted the accelerator on his motorbike up to full burn, thruster activating on each side of the back wheel.  
  
"Ohh. When did those idiots get a hold of green kryptonite?" Superman said as he sat up as he quickly recovered. Armsmaster's motorcycle shot after him.  
  
"Got it!" Squealer shouted as she pulled herself out of the panel. She quickly flicked three switches and turned a knob.  
  
The incredibly loud Squashinator Mark XII faded away like a hazy daydream even as Skidmark made a random turn to the left.  
  
Armsmaster slowed to a stop almost immediately and bit off his own swearword. "Armsmaster to Console, Squealer managed to fix her stealth device. Lost contact at Broadway and Goldman. I'm going to make sure that Superman is fine." He leaned to the side to make a tight turn, only to see Superman flying towards him.  
  
"I thought your reports stated that the Merchants are a minor threat?" Superman demanded as he looked a bit peeved.  
  
The leader of the Brockton Bay Protectorate team looked at him for a second. "They are. There is a reason the Teeth aren't in Brockton Bay and have moved on to Boston and New York City." He spun his bike around again as he squealed off back into traffic.  
  
Superman raised an eyebrow at that. "I think we might have to revise things." He flashed up into the sky through the portal back to Metropolis. Bruce would want to know about this immediately.


	5. Unofficial Side Story by Gladiusone

Director Piggot sat across the interview room table from the strange blonde girl. Sitting serenely, her hands neatly folded on her lap, exuding an air of regal confidence that automatically put Piggot's teeth on edge. Her skin was alabaster, her lips were pink, her hair was gold, her eyes sparkled like diamonds and her age was somewhere between fourteen and twenty four. Her dress was fairly ordinary if one ignored the wide, jewel encrusted belt she was wearing - and why had she been wearing something so obviously valuable in ABB territory at night, of all things? - and had been carrying a baton/scepter/wand thing, like it was the most normal thing in the world. A set of elegant, gold rimmed glasses were carefully placed on the table in front of her, as was a wide brimmed, floral decorated hat.

She cleared her throat. "Let me try this again: you were out for a walk? Alone? In one of the most dangerous parts of the city?"

The girl (woman? It was impossible to tell) raised an eyebrow a precise angle. "Yes, Madam Director. I was advised to talk a constitutional 'where the boats are not', and since the Docks are no longer in use ... until they start arriving again, after that nice Magnus fellow cleared the wreckage ... it seemed the most logical place to go."

"And who 'advised' you to do something so dangerous?"

Her perfect lips quirked. "A most reliable source, by the name of Glegg. In a way."

"In a way?"

"I've been told that your world has a somewhat ... mundane view of the multiverse. I have no wish to disrupt my stay here, or cause trouble for my team, simply because of a philosophical disagreement. In any case, I was minding my own business, when I was accosted by a group of terribly rough young men, led by a rather large man in a silver mask. I must say, his tattoos were quite spectacular, but he and his fellows were quite rude. They seemed to take offense to the hue of my skin and hair, for some reason."

"The ABB are a gang of asian supremacists, and their primary rivals are a white supremacist organisation called the Empire," offered Piggot, and the girl pursed her lips.

"Ah, yes. I had almost forgotten that your world has ...  _Nazis_." The word seemed to leave a bad taste in her mouth.

Piggot's ire rose at the implied dissatisfaction with her native dimension, but fought it down automatically. "So you responded by somehow making the gang members fall asleep?"

"Powdered poppy extract: excellent for giving the obstreperous louts a good nights sleep in order to rethink their life's choices. Perfectly legal, as there is no actual opiates involved, as I explained to your redoubtable Armsmaster."

"We prefer not to have unregistered Tinker-based toxins used in our city," ground out Piggot, "No matter what their active ingrediants happen to be. Nevertheless, Lung was unaffected by your concoction?"

"Indeed: his constitution may even rival my army's."

"Your ...  _army_?"

"Of course: he's quite resilient."

Piggot blinked. " _He_?"

"Certainly: I'm sure he will be along before long: he does worry so. When his men fell asleep, this 'Lung' - and may I say, tattoos aside, I have seen  _far_  more appropriately named dragons than he - started to become even ruder, and tried to grab me in a most uncouth manner, his hands alight with some kind of pyrokinesis.

"So I turned him into a hat, and called the police."

Piggot's eyes were drawn, against their will, towards the elegant headgear on the table. "You ... turned Lung, one of the most terrifying parahumans on the planet, a thug who fought an Endbringer to a standstill and has terrorised Brockton Bay for years ...  _into a lady's hat_?"

Ozma, Princess of Oz and member of the Young Sentinels of Earth Sentinel, part of that world's delegation to Earth Bet, nodded serenely. "It seemed the most expeditious method of apprehending him. He should revert to normal at sunrise: you should probably have him in a holding cell by then."

As Piggot continued to make a good impression of a goldfish, Ozma tilted her head slightly. "Are you quite alright, Madam Director?"


	6. Chapter 3

An hour later, Taylor watched her dad drive off back into traffic. "So food first?" she asked Stephanie.  
  
"Have you ever had a New York hotdog?" the other girl asked.  
  
"A long time ago. We had a summer vacation five or six years ago to see the sights," Taylor replied.  
  
After consuming a New York staple, they headed in to start shopping. Taylor let her new acquaintance pick out a blouse and said no to too tight jeans and no to any skirts. She did end up picking up a few T-shirts and simple underwear.  
  
"What's that?" Taylor asked, pointing at a new store with a grand opening sign in the window.  
  
ICON of NYC616 stated the glowing sign. 'Costumes for heroes and fans of heroes!' stated another.  
  
"I want to go in," Stephanie declared in an instant. She grabbed Taylor's wrist and almost physically dragged her in.  
  
Taylor just looked slightly amused even as she looked around the sterile, bright white room with mannequins lining the wall wearing stereotypical heroic outfits.  
  
"Welcome to ICON, straight from Earth Paragon," a young woman called out as she walked over. "I'm Dana. We haven't gotten our hero authorization system set up yet, but you can browse the wares and at least look through the millions of combinations and colors available!"  
  
"So are you guys going to open a store in Gotham or Metropolis?" Stephanie asked in as casual a tone as possible.  
  
"Or Brockton Bay?" Taylor asked.  
  
"We've bought a building downtown, only a block from the PRT Headquarters in Brockton Bay. I think Jamal is going to manage that one when it opens in a week," Dana explained. "It's going to take a little longer to figure out ones for Metropolis and Gotham. We might just set our two stores to accept hero prestige from Earth-Prime." She gave them both a smile. "We are selling cosplay costumes at a reasonable rate for US currency. Once we get our prestige connection set up with New York City and Brockton Bay, we'll start accepting that for hero costumes. No villains."  
  
"How does that even work?" Stephanie asked curiously. They stocked decent outfits out here.  
  
"We've suggest a hero license system like Paragon City uses. The cities can then reward heroes with a hero currency that they can use for perks such as our costumes and related paraphernalia. Instant change tech or swap clothes spell charms are one of the perks. We are looking forward to serving even more heroes!"  
  
"Let me guess," Stephanie said in a sarcastic voice, "the villains have their own costumers."  
  
Dana shuddered. "The Vahzilok run the Facemaker for villains and vigilantes. Cyber zombie cultists."  
  
"Really?" Taylor asked with a very worried look on her face.  
  
"Really really. But browse our wares and play with the holographic costume designer." The manager gave them a smile and directed them to two kiosks with privacy screens.  
  
The two girls spent half an hour to 'design' updated costumes. Taylor blinked at the cost of the costume she wanted and swallowed at the five thousand dollar cost. She carefully saved her work in case she could afford it in the future.  
  
Stephanie found only a little bit she could improve on, but decided that not being beholden to the Bat-family would be  _useful_.  
  
"Shall we?" Taylor asked as they walked out the entrance and back into the mall.  
  
"Oh look! Do you know who those guys are?" Stephanie asked as she pointed to a stage where eight people in mostly white costumes stood waving to the crowd next to four more people in black and deep blue outfits.  
  
"I don't recognize the guys in blue, but the others are New Wave. They're a local team from Brockton Bay that don't have secret IDs. There used to be two more, but the Empire murdered one of them and her husband quit heroing. Let's listen for a second," the taller girl said.  
  
"Sure."  
  
"Ladies and gentlemen, we'd like to welcome our special guests; The Fantastic Four from our own world and New Wave from Earth Bet!" an announcer called out. "These families wanted to show people that heroes are normal, even if they have powers."  
  
Lady Photon and the Invisible Woman came up to the podium to start their speech when the ground shook and sent people sprawling to the ground.  
  
"Supers fight," Stephanie called out as she helped Taylor back up to her feet. She started to move through the crowd as they fled away from the fight.  
Taylor blinked as she realized they pushed against the flow of the crowd. In just a minute they peeked around the corner of the smashed glass door.  
  
"Silver Banshee? Shit," Stephanie muttered to herself.  
  
The black and white garbed figure screamed at the flying girl in blue with a red cape and sent her rocketing away to smash into a heavy concrete wall.  
  
"She is not here, Supergirl! The evils of these worlds darkened her soul," the Silver Banshee shouted.  
  
"Heya, girl. You know what time it is?" the huge rocky man in blue briefs asked as he ran up. " _IT'S CLOBBERING TIME!"_  His rocky fist slammed home and sent the mad superhuman away to slam into her own wall.  
  
"So cool! So, um,  _IT'S TIME TO BE GLORIOUS!_ " Glory Girl houted out as she shot forward and tried to punch the Silver Banshee.  
  
Her target did not miss her with a massive scream that dropped Glory Girl from the sky. The blonde blinked and staggered away as her power stayed inactive for long moments. Silver Banshee opened her mouth and shouted again, but the sonic blast stopped as four force fields blocked the attack.  
  
Taylor and Stephanie arrived at the downed Kryptonian at the same time as a wheezing girl in a white and red robe.  
  
"Please move back," Panacea said as she knelt down to the stunned alien. "May I heal you?" She laid her hand on Supergirl's neck and the healers weariness fled as she beheld something  _wonderful_. A jolt of alien adrenaline and bruises healed fully finished the job. "Wow."  
  
Supergirl blinked, then smiled. "Thanks, Panacea!" She stood up and winked over at Stephanie and shot back into the air only to arrive as the fight ended.  
  
The battered Silver Banshee collapsed as she held her throat while trying to take in life-giving air.  
  
"How did you do that?" Lady Photon asked the Invisible Woman as Manpower, Brandish and the Thing stood near to make sure that the young woman would not start fighting again.  
  
"I just made a tight forcefield around her and then pulled it out into a round sphere which lowered the air pressure," the matriarch of the Fantastic Four said with a smile on her face.  
  
"I have got to remember that trick in the future," Shielder said as he nodded his head eagerly.  
  
Back over by Panacea, Taylor turned to Stephanie. "I think our shopping trip is over."  
  
"Yeah, probably. Let's move to the side in case Supergirl decides to clean up the rubble," her friend said as she pulled out her phone.  


* * *

  
Chief Director Robecca Costa-Brown looked over large auditorium filling up with people in business suits or military uniforms. Four directors of the PRT and their staff up near the front left. At her side sat the leader of the Earth-616 SHIELD, director Nick Fury who looked over the gathering crowd. A section of the seating had his people in their dark, almost skin tight uniforms. On her  _other_  side sat another man in a suit, but he obviously had powers as you could see his bones without any of the flesh on it. Mr. Bones.  
  
Military uniforms of mostly United States varieties clumped together with government agencies in ill fitting suits.  
  
Costa-Brown flicked the microphone to get everyone's attention. "I do hope everyone's lunch ended up being productive," she said in a light tone. "So I believe that we can agree in concept of voluntary assistance in case of disasters which include world devastating attacks by aliens, our own Endbringer attacks or major threats from within our borders."  
  
"Our various legal departments are working on a broad treaty that allows heroes and government support access to portals to deploy to areas that need assistance. I understand that the Justice League and the Freedom Phalanx have offered to help develop a large scale interdimensional teleporter," Nick Fury said as he took over. "The general agreement is that unless it is the highest of dangers, that permission is asked first before using any system or portals."  
  
"Our various governments are working on an amazing amount of treaties from financial aid, humanitarian supplies and research. None of us want anyone interfering with that. So the Hero Truce will hold unless someone breaks the rules on the place they are visiting," Mr. Bones said as he tapped the ash off the tip of his cigar. "I give it a week before someone mucks that shit up and we have to clean up after them."  
  
"You mean like your D.E.O. Mr. Bones?" a general from Earth-ARC. The stern woman next to him reflected light brilliantly off her gold skin.  
  
"General, your ARC SWAT is so new it squeaks. When you've-" Mr. Bones said with a sneer, only to be cut off by Nick Fury.  
  
"Throwing veiled accusations will just sidetrack all of us and it  _not_  productive. If you want to have a spat, leave it until after the conference," Costa-Brown called out loudly. "Let's just be candid, people. Super powers and the super powered makes the whole world a messy situation. But all of us are here to help defuse the possibility of war between our worlds."  
  
"You mean like how capes from Earth-Bet smashed through into our Earth last night?" an ambassador from Earth-Aleph shouted out.  
  
"They smashed through our heroes from Protectorate St. Louis and killed two of them, ambassador," Costa-Brown reminded them. "They even claim to be from Earth-Aleph originally. Contact the leader of our team there and I'm sure she would be happy to lend assistance to bring them to justice."  
  
"But this, ladies and gentlemen, is going to be our new status quo. Supervillains and super-terrorists  _are_  going to strike where they want. And it is going to be up to us to act and react to keep this shit straight," Nick Fury said to them all. "And that's going to take us working together as much as we can."  
  
A grumble filled the room of four hundred people.  
  
"Everyone has our updated contact information along with how to contact people from the various world computer networks?" Costa-Brown asked. "Then I think we should turn to the problem of extradition."  
  
Everyone started shouting at once.  


* * *

  
A dark-haired woman waved down a taxi and hopped in the back seat. "2013 Fort Summers Ave in Brockton Bay, please. The Ballard Motel," she offered as she showed several twenty dollar bills.  
  
"You got it, lady," the middle-eastern man said. "You are from Israel? You have the sound of it."  
  
"Yes, here to study the convergence a bit. You are from India?"  
  
"Yes, ma'am. Not a fan of driving into Brockton Bay at night, but we okay for now," the taxi driver said with a wide grin of his white teeth against his deep tan.  
Half an hour later, she paid her fare and stepped out into a rough neighborhood in Brockton Bay. The taxi drove off immediately and at more than the speed limit.  
  
"Ruth!" called out a man with a mustache wearing study construction clothing. "This way."  
  
"How many people?" she asked as they walked into the dingy motel.  
  
The big guy waved to the old man at the counter. "Just a few, but I suspect more people will show up soon."  
  
They entered the very last room at the end of the hall and the back of the building. With a click, he locked the door behind them. "Eric."  
  
The man at the window turned. Even with white hair, he looked like a well preserved forty-five. "Rogers. This is Sabra?"  
  
"Straight here from Israel, Magneto," the mutant super soldier of the Mossad replied. "Shadowcat?"  
  
"In the flesh. Sort of wish we had more people," the X-Men noted in a dry tone.  
  
"I have procured a few more people," Erik Lehnsherr said. "Silver Sable is very effective and suggested that I hire Paladin. She is currently scouting out several locations."  
  
"Just remember, I can't be here officially. I thought international politics were grueling," Steve Rogers said. "I've managed to free up some resources, but you'll be on your own and with any allies you can gather here."  
  
"Rogers, quit trying to tell us how to do our job," Erik ordered.  
  
"So it's spy time?" Ruth 'Sabra' Bat-Seraph asked.  
  
"Ninja time! I need to get back into that mindset," Kitty said mostly to herself.  
  
Steve Rogers moved to the door and opened it. "I'll contact you in a week."  
  
Once outside, he got into a jeep and drove off in a casual, unhurried manner.  
  
Upon on the roof above the street, a blond man of old age studied him. "It appears the captain is leaving his group behind. Should I follow him?"  
  
"He's just heading back to his gaudy clubhouse. Keep an eye on Magneto," a woman's voice replied over the radio. "The rest of your team is checking out obvious places downtown."  
  
"Reminds me of the  _old_  days," the blond man said with a mean grin on his domino-masked face.  
  
"I doubt that. Not nearly enough explosions," the woman replied with a laugh in her voice.


	7. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hopefully a non-pyromaniac first outing!

Taylor frowned as she looked at her new outfit. It had taken her a lot less time to make than she had thought. The silk undersuit had more armor than expected, almost like that shiny, bug carapace that she saw at ICON. She cobbled together some goggle with prescription lens. The shiny purple-green really looked insect-like and her outfit let her hair flow out the top of the outfit.  
  
And she was going to be a hero. With that, she opened her window and slipped out onto the snow covered roof. Then went back in and found her tennis shoes and put them on over the silk stocking with pads and grips, because brrrrrrr! And a thick hoodie!  
  
Once again out into the one o'clock darkness, she thought about everyone within the area. And with all of her bugs, immediately knew that only one other person on the street sat awake in the house across street. She carefully climbed down a rope ladder made of scrap wood and spider silk.  
  
Five minutes later, she started to jog a little faster in the dark as she headed towards the nearest portal. It led to Earth-Prime's Gotham City and only took her about half an hour of moving from shadow to shadow. She ducked down behind a garbage bin as a Gotham PD cruiser turned the corner.  
  
It only took fifteen minutes for her to find her first crime in an alley between a deli and bookstore.  
  
"-you pay a toll for walking here, even in Gotham Heights," a rough woman's voice said.  
  
"Please, I need this money to pay rent! I can't live on the streets!" a reedy voice replied.  
  
"And I need my fucking medication, if you get my meaning. Otherwise,  _you're_  going to need a doctor," the thug said.  
  
Taylor looked around the corner to see the reverse of the classic mugging. That woman could probably break her like a twig! Which the old guy with faded blond hair looked a big as. A twig, she meant. Okay, she could do this!  
  
Bugs finished gathering as she stepped around the corner. "You there! Stop!" she shouted as the swarm started to buzz around her and the mugging.  
  
"Who the hell are you?" the strung out druggie asked.  
  
"A hero. Let that man go and surrender!" Taylor shouted back.  
  
"I hope you have more powers than a creepy costume and mask, or this is going to be too easy," the thug said.  
  
"I control insects.  _All_  the insects." With that, Taylor sent in her swarm of thousands of flies and spiders to start to fly or crawl over the thug's face.  
  
So the thug running and tackling her back onto the sidewalk surprised her.  
  
"Think you can fuck up Mayday? Fuck you," the woman shouted as she started to throw punch at the much thinner girl.  
  
The bug started to  _bite_  then as even more swarmed over her. In moments, Mayday started to panic as she let go and tried to swat at the bugs as she tried to stagger away. She only made it ten steps before she curled up on ground.  
  
Taylor pulled them back a second. "D-Do you surrender?" She scrambled to her feet, feeling frozen and overheated as adrenaline surged through her body.  
  
"Yes! Just stop!" the thug cried out as she tried to shield her face with her arms.  
  
"I-I- Good. Stay there." Taylor turned to victim. "Are you all right?"  
  
He looked at her angrily. "I can't pay no protection money!"  
  
"Uh, what? I'm a hero." She looked around. "Can you call the cops?"  
  
He actually looked at her like she was crazy. "What? Don't have any special insect phone?"  
  
Taylor sunk in on herself a little. "I- Could you just call the cops? Please?" She turned back to Mayday who had started to stand up. "And you don't move. I know where  _all_  of my insects are all the time."  
  
Beep-bop-bop. "Uh, I'd like to report a mugging. Some superhero caught her and wants the police to come pick her up. We're right across Magnolia Ave from the R.H. Kane Building. They alley between Barbers Books and Tony's Meatwitches." The mugging victim looked over at the thug and hero.  
  
She felt a group of insects make an abrupt change in direction the next street over and accelerate. Thirty seconds later, a cop car with its lights on made a corner and headed down the street to them. It pulled over angled its headlights down the alley.

The doors opened and two cops stepped out. "Holy shit, a polite one," the older, grizzled policewoman said.  
  
Her younger partner chuckled. "How often does that happen, Iverson?"  
  
"That the perp on the ground?" Angela Iverson demanded.  
  
"She was trying to mug this guy and I happened to be in the area," Taylor explained while she fidgeted in her wet tennis shoes and scuffed some snow around.  
  
"Yeah, came out of nowhere and demanded she surrender and then sent all these bugs while the mugger tried to beat her up. That didn't last long." He carefully held up his hands. "I'm, uh, not hurt or nothing."  
  
"So what's your name, hero? Marty, grab the evidence camera," Iverson said as she walked over and started to cuff Mayday.  
  
"Uh, I don't really have one." She shuffled her feet again.  
  
"Why not?" Marty asked. "Christ almighty, look at all the bug bites. Are we going to have to worry about venom issues?"  
  
"I didn't have them sting, just bite. I do have an epipen, just in case," Taylor explained. "And, well, I can't think of any good bug name that doesn't make me sound like a villain. I could go with Insectgirl or Bug Girl, but..."  
  
"Yeah, you have to have some presence to pull of a name like that," Marty noted. "So, Iverson? What do we put down for the paperwork?"  
  
The senior patrol officer frowned. "Bug Controller-1 for now. I take it you are new? Why aren't you headed to where the crimes are like over in Crime Alley or Old Gotham?"  
  
"On my first night?" Taylor asked with her eyes wide under her goggles.  
  
"Okay, maybe not your first night. I sort of assumed you a pro with that outfit," Iverson said as she finished checking Mayday over and put her in the backseat of the patrol car. "On behalf of the Gotham PD, thank you for helping one of our citizens." And not being a freaking nightmare, she thought to herself.  
  
"Um, you're welcome?" Taylor straightened up a she felt pride and happiness.  


* * *

  
He watched the girl in the costume (and hoodie) head into the alley. Lowering his high tech binoculars, it compacted and then slipped into a specific pouch on his belt. He took off running and with a quick shot of his grapple gun, headed into the air and to a taller roof to keep track of the new  _intruder_  into his city.  
  
The bug controller (tagged Insectgirl with only a  _touch_  of humor on his HUD) stopped two more muggings and broke up a few small drug deal. Which, for a pure amuetar seems unreasonably good. And she seemed to know Gotham like a native, even though she had that Brockton Bay burr to her voice.  
  
Batman dove off the latest building eighty feet above Insectgirl, noting she started to try and scramble for cover as he landed with a swirl of his glide cape to let it revert to its normal flowing form.  
  
"Another vigilante from Brockton Bay," he said in a low rumble of a voice that threatened pain as he stood up to his full height.  
  
"Oh, wow. Batman. And, uh? Did I do something wrong?" Taylor said as she backed towards the alley entrance slowly.  
  
"You said you were a new hero, but you move around in the alleys like a native. You have a  _very_ professional costume, but state you are out for your first night." And did not have a cell phone, which even the most basic vigilante had with them to call the police.  
  
"I am new! I didn't think that- Oh, sorry. Ah, my bug control lets me know what's around me pretty easily. So I know where all the alleys and streets are. I'm starting to figure out how to spot criminals, too!" Taylor muttered nervously. This guy scared the crap out of her! "And I used spider silk to make this outfit!"  
  
Batman narrowed his eyes. "So you have a  _Thinker_  ability that allows you to use your bugs over a wide area. Interesting. Why are you in Gotham?" he demanded.  
  
"I figured this would be an area that has some crime, but no real capes? And it's the closest place to my home unless I want to ride the bus."  
  
"That's almost smart," Batman said. "Why don't you join your Wards?" He did not have time for more rookies in his city.  
  
Taylor looked down at her feet for long moments. "I... have some reasons. I might join later, but not now."  
  
Damn it. He reached into his belt and pulled out a signal device. "When you come into Gotham, signal and wait for someone to shadow you until you can be trusted. Do you understand?"  
  
"I guess? You have this already? So do you have some parahumans from Brockton Bay around already?" she asked.  
  
"Yes. At least two. They have to follow the rules, too. No killing."  
  
"I'm a hero!" she protested.  
  
That caused him to relax infinitesimally and show the shadow of a smile. "Good."  
  
"Okay?" she asked. "I'm going home before my dad notices I'm gone."  
  
"Be  _careful_. I'll be watching you."

**Author's Note:**

> As an aside here, this is a 'semi-open' project world. So I'm not totally adverse to people writing stories that fit into this mess of Worm, DCU Comics and Marvel Comics. I may even repost some things from the thread I made at sufficientvelocity. So if you want to join in, let me know!


End file.
